249 3. onthe value and uses of the larch tree. 9 
had remained in that position till all tradition of 
their first erection had been lost. He found the 
larch wood there entire and uncorrupted, though 
every thing else of vegetable or animal origin was 
utterly decayed. 
After this example it may by some be deemed 
unnecefsary to mention others. But in a case of so 
much importance it is impofsible to have proofs too 
full; especially if they are of such a nature as 
can easily can be verified by private individuals, who 
can have no opportunity of examining the foundati- 
on of the houses of Venice, or exploring the tombs 
of Kamtchatka. Such are those that follow : 
In the garden of Mr Dempster, so long dis- 
tinguifhed for his respectable conduct in the Britifh 
parliament, a spire of young larix wood, not thicker 
at the root end than a man’s wrist, was found to have 
remained fixed in the ground as a hop pole summer 
and winter for five, six, or seven years, (the pre- 
cise number could not be ascertained,) without the 
smallest symptom of rotting being discoverable in 
it. Any other kind of wood I have seen, similarly 
circumstanced, would have been more decayed in six 
months than it was. See Beevol. p. . 
Alternate stakes of larch and oak wood having 
been tried to support the nets of a decoy in Lin- 
colnfhire, two sets of the oak had been worn 
out, as my informent afsured me, before any 
marks of decay appeared on the larch stakes: the 
experiment is still going forward. Ib. vol.  p. 
Two gates were erected with wooden gate posts, 
one of the posts of each gate being made of the best 
VOL, xvii. B t 
